Addison Niday, Artist, Muralist, Illustrator

00:00
You would think that I can express myself and I can put words down, but when it comes to my own feelings, it's really, really tough.

00:15
Welcome to another episode of Chewin' the Fat. I am your host, Big Rob. Thank you so much for tuning in, downloading, following. I really appreciate the support. Thanks for the new folks that follow me on Instagram at ChewintheFatBR. Of course you can find me on the website as well at ChewintheFatBR.com. It's got all the social links on there and also the folks that have bought me a coffee through that. I can't tell you how much it means that you have put your dollars.

00:43
into actual support of this podcast. It means so very much to me. It allows me to continue to have conversations about mental health and really to dive into just people that are doing amazing things. And I am so excited about my guest today. I have discovered his work. He is an artist. He's a new artist to me. I believe a fairly new artist to our town, but he is amazing doing some.

01:11
Great, great stuff. Please welcome Addison Ndey. Ndey-day. Ndey-day. Ndey-day. You got it. There we go. I knew I was gonna mess it up. No. It's cause I was thinking too much about it. Addison, thank you for being here, man. Thank you so much. I am such a huge fan of this podcast. I watch every single episode. Oh. It's amazing to be a part of this. Oh. So I'm kinda. Oh.

01:31
You know, geeking out a little bit. I'm like, I don't know that you're in the Fat Podcast. This is awesome. Here in the junkie room, the junkie studio, I appreciate you coming. We had a bit of a scheduling thing where you thought you were about to schedule a month out from now and I was like, hey, just making sure you're coming and you're like, I'm watching Empire Strikes Back, but I'm only 10 minutes away. I was like, you don't have to give up on that, but I appreciate that you were like, you know what? I'm gonna come on in and I appreciate it, Addison.

02:01
So again, I say you are new to me, and I feel like you're new to the Augusta area. How long have you been here in Augusta? It'll be two years in November. Wow. Yeah, it'll be my second year anniversary. Wow, so you are just an Augusta baby. Yeah. But you are doing some amazing things here in town with some of your mural work and your art pieces and your message. I love the messages you have.

02:27
Next to the bees knees there that kind words are sweet like honey. Yeah, that's so good. It is so good and so true So so where are you from then? I am from Cincinnati, Ohio. Oh, wow. Yeah, I grew I grew up there I live there for about 16 years. Wow. Yeah, and then my dad sold sold his company He had a big department store that Walmart bought out. Oh

02:52
Yeah, in Cincinnati and in Cluxville, Indiana. He had two locations. And then he sold it off, retired. And he's like, we're going to move down to Daytona Beach. And I'm like, what? I was like 16. Because I had friends, I had school, I had just graduated. And we're going to move to Daytona Beach, Florida? Right. He's like, yeah, I'm retiring. We're going to go down there. We just bought a condo. I'm like, you just bought a condo. And we packed up. And in a week, we were gone. Wow. I spent the better part of 20 years.

03:19
in Daytona Beach, Florida. Wow. Yeah. That's pretty intense to be retired at 16. Right? Because Daytona can be a kind of retirement community. It really was. Except for like during spring break, then it's a whole different type of community. Exactly. Moving there, being 16 years old, being in the community that we were in, we were in a retirement community. Oh wow. Because I'm adopted. So I didn't know my real parents. My parents are much older than regular parents are. You know? So my dad was...

03:49
My dad was 70 years old when he retired. Oh, wow. So being in that kind of community, it was just, it was so, it was really hard to get used to. Yeah, I can imagine. But it was really gated, and it was right by the ocean. It was extremely luxurious. And I was like, does all kids have this? And then there was no kids around at all. And I was like, so I grew up pretty much around like an older community. Wow. Now, were you?

04:17
Were you always artistic even from Cincinnati and growing up, were you always like, I always ask artists, were you a doodler? Were you always drawing in the margins and stuff like that? Yeah, I was always doing, they would take me to Cracker Barrel like every weekend. I would draw Darth Vader and those Star Wars characters on the napkins. Oh wow, okay. So is that where a lot of your...

04:39
inspiration came from? Was it from like sci-fi and Star Wars? Yes, pretty much. I got connected to a comic book writer back in high school and I went to Daytona State and then I met up with a graphic designer that did a lot of work for DC comics and Warner Brothers and he got me into like this whole Batman series and was like he was drawn for dark Dark Horse comics. It was like an affiliate of DC and he was doing like his own thing creating his own characters but he had like

05:09
you know, entourage of people that did Batman and the Joker and Superman and stuff. And I got to meet like all those people and we were just, we were sitting at, uh, you know, a bar, I don't know if I could say that one night and he was like, what don't you just draw? Like we had it like, you know how, like when a movie is, is, uh, getting like laid out, like the, the maps for it, you see like all the storyboard. Yeah. Storyboard. Exactly. And we were.

05:33
pretty much building a storyboard for a Batman story that I had an idea for with little square napkins all across the bar. And I was just drawing out these Batman. He's like, this is a really good story. This story has never been told before. And it hadn't. And it was super, it's a lot like the Robert Pattinson Batman, you know, like how he came to be. Cause that story was never, it was told in like a little bit of year one and.

05:57
a lot of different comics, but I wanted to tell it in a different way. And that's just, that's how the artistic thing really kind of started blowing up because I got involved with them and I was doing like Comic-Con shows and, and then right at the end, it kind of all fell apart. Oh, we have a story that's kind of like this, you know, that's already kind of in the works. So.

06:17
Thanks but no thanks. Yeah, it was kind of like that. Because we didn't have anything solid. We had this storyboard. We had a bunch of sketches. We had the anchor. And we had all the details in the storyline. It was about 167 pages that we had a writer that did it. And they still shut it down. Because it was so already in line with something that they already had. But it was so long. It was before the Heath Ledger one. It was during the in-between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Oh, wow. Wow.

06:47
That is so cool. So did you actually work for them? Were you employed by? Yeah, I was a freelance. I was a freelance. They 1099'd me. Wow. I didn't really. I only got commissions at fairs. We did a lot of shows, comic book conventions, toy shows. I love those things. Because it just gives you a way to find such vintage, really awesome stuff that just so nostalgic. It was rad. That is so cool. That is awesome.

07:16
So after the comic book kind of fell apart, is that where everything kind of severed with your connection with him? Yeah, well, he was trying to get me to kind of be a part of his... He had his own character. He was designing. It was a completely original character that he really loved and he wanted to shoot as he see because he wanted to pick something up. And he really wanted me to do it. I just could not get into it. He was feeding me like who he is and...

07:45
and what he was about, and I don't want to mention now, because I don't know the story of how, if that is even a character now, because he could be, and I just haven't done any research on it. But I just couldn't get around it. It was, you know, I have to visually see something to be able to get in there and do it. And I just, I couldn't get there. It didn't spark whatever inside you to really create that thing. Yeah, I totally understand that. I totally understand that. So.

08:12
So you're doing that, you're in Daytona. What brings you to Augusta? What brought me to Augusta? There was a girl that I was dating at the time that I loved very, very much.

08:30
And she lived here, but she had a lot of ties in Daytona Mm-hmm in Florida and she was always go back and forth Okay, and I fell held over heels and low with her Yeah, and she would come to Florida and I would come here. Mm-hmm, and I would she would show me around She would show me downtown. She would throw me all these murals and stuff because at that time I was doing lettering when I first met her. Okay, and she's like look at all these lettering. Yes, you can and oh, yeah Yeah, that was the first one I saw and I was like

09:00
Because at the time, I was like, gosh, I saw that one. And I was like, oh my god, I can totally do that. And there it was. Yes, you can. Yeah. It would be so awesome if I could do this. Yeah. You know? And I ended up here. We got really serious. And she couldn't move to Florida.

09:19
And I was in the opportunity where I could move. And I thought it would be a really rad experience to see if I could, like what would happen if I moved here. Yeah. You know, like I had my, I have a painting company, residential and commercial painting company that's still grounded in Florida. And I was like, man, it would be, it would make me feel so good about myself. If I can make it run there and here, and you know, like be like a corporation almost, and building my company. It was all positive.

09:49
And when I got here, I got so plugged into all the business owners here. Yeah. There's a B and I group that I'm a part of, and they got me in front of almost everybody in downtown area about the chalkboards that I do. And I was doing a lot of churches, New Life Church in Grove town. And it just, I was like, and yeah.

10:13
And that's just, and here you are. Here I am. Two years later. That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. So in your work, so you say you're doing lettering and stuff like that, and I do notice you have a very graphic style, but a very, it's almost like you're creating your own fonts. So I guess it's a lettering thing, I think, in some of the work that I've seen that you've done.

10:40
around town and it's really cool stuff. And of course, I'm following you on Instagram and the way you did the whole alphabet in different styles and stuff like that. So those are just so cool. Have you always, is that really what you like to lean into? Is that how letters are formed and how people perceive letters in different emotions and feelings that you could tell from just.

11:08
Just a letter. Absolutely. Yes. I am huge on words. Words are so powerful. Oh, yes. This is how we communicate. And the way that you communicate could affect, and people grab a hold of that. And motivational speakers has always grabbed me. And podcasts, I love listening to things. And I love hearing speeches. And when I started the lettering company, it was at a church.

11:36
at my church in relevant at Daytona that I was not, I was not gonna give up. You know, there's plenty of amazing churches here also. But that one is where I started the lettering thing. It just kind of evolved out of nothing. But when I first started doing it, they had a special event and they had a giant chalkboard for probably about the size of this wall. And they're like, well, you draw welcome.

12:06
Dr. Rob. His name was Dr. Rob Thompson. And I was like, I've never done lettering before. I mean, you just want me to just write it or just like, no, just just do it. I'm like, you know, I do like Batman stuff. And he's like, yeah, you can do it. You can. I'm like, okay, all right, I'll do it. And then I did it. And it just everybody was like, who did that? Yeah. And I was like, that this is nothing. You know, like I didn't think it was anything because like, you know, going from drawing.

12:33
Superman and Batman to writing words. It's black and white. And it just turned into this massive thing that I was not expecting and I was not prepared for. Oh, wow. Because we had so many business owners that went to the church also that was like, they have chalkboards. And they were like, we need this guy. Get this guy. To come do this. Who is this? What's his name? And it exploded. And they were like, we're keeping this chalkboard. You're going to do it every single month until.

12:59
you're like 90 and I'm like, okay. Wow. But that's, I mean, that's a great thing sometimes. When I talked to April, Henry King, she kind of had the same thing where it was like, somebody asked her to do a painting, she'd never done painting before, and realized that she just loved it, that something clicked about it. Yeah. You know, that's amazing that somebody just asked you, hey, we just want you to do this, and you're like, oh, this is gonna be a one-off thing, and I'm just gonna kind of, and it's not, I don't really think it's the greatest thing, and then to...

13:29
for it to turn into something like this where you get so much other work, but also enjoyment and joy out of it too. Yeah, I had the first chalkboard. I can do a chalkboard now in a couple hours, but that one took me about four days, the first one. Oh, wow. Wow. So it took me a long time because when they entrust you with something that's so large and it's so detailed and it's something that's so important to them, I'm like, okay, I need to match that level of passion.

13:58
And I tried my best and I look at it today as inspiration. I'm like, oh my gosh, I better never do anything like that again. Wow. But, but, but it's still, it's, it's being able to look back at that and like I said, still drawing inspiration from it.

14:12
as in a what not to do, but you know, or to learn from like, you know, that took you four days to do that, and like you said, you can do something in a couple hours now that you feel is so much more elevated than what you started out with. Yeah, I have it. I printed it out, I framed it, and everything, I look at it every day. That's awesome. So I always wanna remind myself, like, you sucked. Everyone's paid. So.

14:36
And so now that you don't suck Don't suck because I'm gonna I haven't I've not seen that have you put this on your on your Instagram It's not no, I don't have them. I'm not brave that brave. Okay. Okay, maybe you can send it to me cuz I'm gonna begin I just just I won't put it anywhere. I just want to see it. I just want to see it. Yeah Cuz I guarantee you you don't suck because you've not seen me draw

15:00
Or try to write. I write like a psychopath. It's like, and I can't draw sick figures. It's just horrible. It is horrible. But we're not all given the same gifts, you know what I mean? It's just... Well, you know, I saw a quote that says a baby can't do a roof. That's true. Well, yeah. I bet you could if you tried. I bet if you picked up a pencil and then like got like one of those books or something, and then just...

15:27
to start basically, if you put the work in to actually, if you really wanted to do it, I bet you could. Right, right, I mean, well, you know, I think there's a difference between learning a skill and being born with a talent for a skill, because that's the thing, it's like, I could probably learn some of that skill. I would never be as skillful as you, because I don't have the passion for it that you do, too. And I think that informs a lot of the ability to do, and the want and the drive to do that type of stuff.

15:56
You know what I mean? So yes, I could probably do better than I do now, but I'm okay that that's not where my talent lies. You know what I mean? But. I only said that just because when people, it's just, it bothers me when people say, I could never do that. Like you could absolutely do that. Right, yeah. Like if you really wanted to do it, you could, you know.

16:22
Right. Because we're born when we don't have, when we're born we have, you know, we're taught how to spell and taught how to write. And you know, I'm just saying like just to positively say if you wanted to start calligraphy, I guarantee you could do it. Yeah. And I 100% agree with what you're saying. It's kind of like that adage like if you gauge a fish's intelligence by its ability to climb a tree, it's an idiot. Right?

16:52
Because fish can't climb trees. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's a great quote. So yes, I will take that as in that's just maybe not where my passion lies. Yes, I could learn to do better than I do, but it is not where my passion lies to do that. So thank you for your positive reinforcement of what my abilities could be. Absolutely. I appreciate that. And that type of positive reinforcement, like you just

17:19
demonstrated right there is very evident in a lot of your work that I've seen here around town. Like I mentioned the piece that's over by the bee's knees. Was that something that they literally asked you to do or was that something, was that a, was that phrase something that was within you? No, that's a, that's a proverb in the Bible. Mm-hmm. That's Proverbs 16 and 19. Okay. Chapter 16 verse 19.

17:46
that has always resonated. I heard a really rad story if you want to hear about that one. Yeah, absolutely. A couple weeks before I did it, I was down in Florida at my church and I was hanging out with my pastors. I was painting their house and they have a little daughter with them and I was like, I write, I do calligraphy on their cups and I sneak them all over because they have a big cafe with disposable cups. So I would write scriptures and just...

18:14
and hide them all over and see if people find them. Oh, that's awesome. And post them, just something fun to do. Yeah. And I asked her, what is your favorite scripture? And she's like, I love the kind words are like honey, the proverb one. And I was like, all right, do that. And I took a picture of all the cups that I do, just so if it comes back to me, then I go, okay, that's when I did it. And I took a picture of it. And I had a meeting with Eric at the Beesneys, and I had something completely, totally different that I wanted to do, because I had asked him,

18:44
It'd be a dream to me if I could get a mural on 10th Street. Because that's what just, I love 10th Street so much. And I love the Beesneys, I'm always in there. That's where I built my website. I'm just coffee all day long. And I showed him my original design and he didn't like it. And he said, do you have anything bee related or anything honey related? And I said, well, I don't really have anything. I had this cup that I did like that. And I showed him like this little, just the sketch on a cup on my phone. He's like, I love that. You should try to redesign that, make that look like honey.

19:14
I would totally let you do that. I'm like, really? And I totally, I took a screenshot of it and I blew it up, I traced it on my iPad and I colored it and made it look a little bit like honey and I shot it back to him. He's like, I love that. Please do that. I'm like, all right. That's awesome. That is so cool. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. And again, I think that's one of those things when you're true to yourself and just.

19:41
Here's the stuff, you know what I mean? Those little moments of magic happen and it connects with someone somewhere else. Again, you know, it's just a doodle on a coffee cup. Yeah, it was, if you would have told me that coffee cup would be a mural, I was like, there's no way I did it with a Sharpie, but I can send you the coffee cup, I still have it, the picture of it, and it looked similar to it. But.

20:05
It was actually the full quote, because its kind words are like, honey, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. It's the whole, I just cut it to make it fit that little space. That's awesome. That's awesome. So I encourage you, if you're down 10th Street over there by the Bee's Knees, if you're looking at Bee's Knees, it's on the right-hand side there of the awning. Another great photo op in Augusta.

20:34
big happy robot there near Tire City. It's a great area and of course the coffee at East Nees is primo. You definitely wanna stop in there and get a coffee. It was Jason that did the Get Up Augusta, right? The one that ran next to me. Yeah, that's right, the one right there on the corner. You gotta Get Up Augusta. I love that one. There's so much, so much cool art. I mean, you really could, if someone hasn't created like a mural tour yet,

21:02
They really need to. Yeah, they're. There's your $1,000 business opportunity. You can get folks to go on a mural tour, a walking tour. They have it at the Sacred Heart Foundation. They do? Don't they? At the Greater Elts Council, they do that. Do they have a mural tour? During the summertime. I do not know that. I think they have a little trolley, I've seen it. Okay. I think that they take you around all Augusta and they show you the robot and they show you the great James Brown one. Okay. And they...

21:32
think the ones that's underneath the bridge, the really, really big one. Okay. Yeah, I didn't know. I think so. I don't want you to quote me on it. Well, I will do some online research and I will check that and see if that is a thing. If it's not, someone should definitely start that. I mean, a walking tour, a photo walking tour of murals downtown would be amazing. What other pieces do you have?

22:00
around downtown. Do you have any other pieces? The place that's not open yet, he asked me not to mention the name. But it's Thirst Come Thirst Serve. It's a blue one. Nice. On the border. That was the first mural I ever did. He just reached out to me and he says, I hear you're a lettering artist and trying to get your feet wet. You want to do a mural? And I was like, yeah, yeah I do. And he's like, well I have this wall that's going to come down in December when we open, but you can do it, you can practice on it if you want. And he gave me this quote, and he's like, I really like this quote, we do this.

22:30
I tried to match it exactly like his quote, and that was my first one. That's awesome. And then there's this little teeny tiny indie little soda company that you may have heard of called Coca-Cola. Uh-huh. There's two of those on Reynolds Street. Awesome. I think I just finished it. The last one, two days ago. That's awesome. Yeah. Now those were more like a restoration kind of piece, right? So it's not like an original.

22:56
It's like said it's almost like a restoration of what was there that original signage and you know That's the thing Augusta has some great old. Oh, yes, you know painted signs and things like that so that's amazing that you're able and you know and being able to use your skill as a in in lettering and in murals and knowing how to do that stuff and and and I'm sure with your eye and I think I remember seeing this on your on your either your Facebook your Instagram

23:25
about the color matching, that you wanted to make sure that you had accurate colors for what you're doing. It's a true restoration, as opposed to just, I'm gonna just slap something up on it. Yeah, I did my research on that first one that I did, because I got to see, I had pictures from the 70s of what it looked like, and there's a lot of pictures of it, what it used to look like, but they're in black and white.

23:48
You know, there's no colors and there's trucks in front of it. And there was a train that apparently ran right into it. Yeah, yeah. Because it was a bottling facility, if I'm not mistaken, or something like that, or a manufacturing facility or something right back in there. So it wasn't really hard. It wasn't really easy to see. But I could tell that it was bright red and the letters were white. It's the real thing. That was their slogan back then. And there was a border.

24:16
and it had to have been either yellow or green. Yeah, that's awesome. Do you have any other things planned that you're working on, any murals? Yeah, I'm actually, believe it or not, I'm actually gonna do one tonight. Oh wow, wow. I had a meeting about it yesterday, last night, literally at the arsenal. I did a chalkboard for them, and I'm gonna do a mural for them. And then the commissioner of Harlem approached me and they said, we have a mural that you can't see anymore.

24:45
that used to be there, that's not there anymore. I don't know if you saw the story. It's the Coca-Cola, I sent the picture that they sent me from the, that's from like the 40s or 50s of the Coca-Cola mural that they used to have. And I went down there and saw it and you can't see it, it's gone.

25:02
There's nothing left of it. Just the ring around the Coca-Cola is red. You can see that. But the rest of it is totally gone. And they asked me to restore it. And because the hardest thing that I've found doing lettering and running a painting company is trying to find this time balance. And it is extremely hard to do these murals, because these murals take a lot of time. I mean, you guys get to see them at 50 seconds. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

25:28
But it's eight or nine hours, me sitting out there, just really trying to precisely really, really get it, especially on that aluminum wall. But I'm gonna do that one tonight. I'm trying to do them at night. That way I can run my paint company during the day. Well, I don't know when you find time to sleep then, though. Yeah, yeah, I don't know either. But I don't know if you know about the mural restoration project that I started from the Coca-Cola one.

25:55
Oh, yeah. Just the outpour that I got, the positive reaction, I think is the right word that I got from that. It's been tremendous. It's been very heartwarming. Because I just wanted, my only intention was I knew that in a year or two that thing was going to be gone. Yeah.

26:16
Nobody was gonna ever know that was ever there in like a year or two And I'm like, I can't have this because I drive by it every single day. You've seen it every single day I really I live right across the street from it. Yeah, and I see it and I was like, why don't I just do it and It was months went by and I was like I could get into so much trouble for doing this You know, like I could you know, yeah, so I just I always went back and forth I'm like should I do this or do I just want to do this and I just

26:46
finally said, you know what, I'm going to do it. Being an artist is a lot about taking risks. Yeah. Yeah. And I did it. And when I found out there was such a positive reaction from it, like the newly elected mayor and the commissioners and people that were in.

27:06
Yeah. In high seats, we're like, thank you so much for this. I'm like, I'm going to do the rest of them. Because there's 12 total. I counted them all out. I did it one night. I walked around downtown. And I was like, which ones would I really want to restore? I really want to bring these back. And then I started finding ones that are super really hidden. Like there's ones where I was talking to other people and like, I didn't know that.

27:29
That was there. Where is that? I didn't know that one was there. Where are you finding these? And I'm like, these are the people don't even know about, because they are really well hidden. Because I think they were put up at one point, and then buildings were built around them. So you can't really see them anymore. The one on top of Augusta & Co, the Jones Furniture Company. I really want to do that one. The Dixie Restoration and Furniture Company. That one's on.

27:59
What building that's on. But reaching out to the owners is the most important aspect of this, getting their permission. Because I don't want to just climb up 50 feet in the air and start painting. But I want to ask you, do you know about the Sprite one, the sugar-free Sprite mural? No. Really? Where's their sugar-free Sprite mural? I ask everybody. I'm like, because I found it. It's in an alley that's literally about as wide as my hand.

28:28
Oh, wow. And I squeezed in there. I mean, it's not, I might be over-exaggerating. But it is really thin. In between two buildings that I don't know what they used to be. They're nothing anymore. But it's in between those buildings. And it's a giant tri-sugar-free sprite. Only one calorie. And it's bright yellow and green. And it's almost there. But I really, really want to do that one.

28:57
And, but the only thing is, I don't even know how I would photograph it. Right. Cause you can't get far enough away. You know, I'd have to bend down and like get way down and. No windows in the other building that you could shoot it through or anything like that. And another thing is like, I'd be the only one that knew about it. Yeah. Like if I restored it, it'd be great, you know, but that'd be something just for me. Cause I don't think anybody has ever seen it. Yeah. I don't even know where that, where that would be.

29:20
I mean, it's downtown somewhere, huh? Yeah, I found it. It's right in an alley that you can walk down. If you look up, it's way up there. But it's this big billboard, almost like the Coke one. And you've got to walk along the way just to really see what it says. It says only one calorie sugar-free Sprite. There's your treasure hunt right there to find the sugar-free Sprite mural that's in there. That's amazing. And do you know about the RC Cola one?

29:48
Where is that? It's almost really visible. It's right next to the pizza joint. Okay, yeah. It's right there in that alley. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. It's RC Cola, and they're still around. Yeah? I didn't know that until recently. Yeah. You can still get that stuff. Yeah, and I know there's, and that's the thing, is like, what constitutes a mural, or is it just an advertisement or a painting on the side of a building? Is there a line that skews between it becoming a mural and just,

30:17
you know, advertising on the building. Because I mean, I know about the feed and seed one on the side of Vintage Ulee's building. Yeah. You know, she, and it's pretty visible. It's not very colorful. It may have been more colorful in the past, but I think it's just, I want to say it's like, Avid or something like that. I can't, I have terrible memory, but I know that it's there, like, because that's what that building used to be, like a feed and seed or whatever. Yeah. So. It's right there on the avarite.

30:46
Everett Everett that's a hardware store, right? Yeah, that's on the other side. There's that big long horizontal Is that horizontal? Yes. Yes vertical vertical. Yeah the vertical vertical side. Yes, vertical side. Yeah. Yeah, but that's so cool That's so cool that you if for someone who's only been here two years, I've been here almost 50 years Okay, so I've born in Brandon Augusta. So so to for you to have discovered these You know hidden gems

31:12
in our downtown I think is amazing. And I think it's amazing that you have the, that you've embraced this town to put your heart and your art into it, you know, to be able to give back to a place that you seem to be happy calling home right now. Yeah, absolutely. And I just think that's amazing. And for you to, for people to now be discovering you and.

31:38
your art and wanting you to be a part of creating art for their businesses and stuff like that as well. I think that's just amazing. And you were talking about the restoration project. Is that part of the GoFundMe that you have set up? Yes, that just supplies all the layering enamel that I'm using to restore these murals as I get them approved. A couple of them have been approved already, so I'll just go down the line and do the ones that are approved and just keep praying that the other ones...

32:07
the owners will get back to me. Yeah, and so if you want to help Addison with his restoration project, of course I'll put the link in the show notes. So if you'd like to donate to his GoFundMe, that is again strictly for him to buy the paint and supplies to be able to do this work. Again, to restore these signs, to bring back this color and this beauty to our town, to this area that we call home. Again, I will put those links in the show notes as well.

32:36
So aside from chalkboards and murals, do you do any other commission work or small pieces or anything else that you have that you're working on? I mean, I know you're running, your day is full apparently with murals and then running the paint company during the day. But do you have any passion projects, maybe it's not even art related, that just really set you on fire, that bring you joy?

33:06
Not right now. No. I have just fully committed to the murals. At the beginning of the year, I invested a huge chunk of money into the painting company. That way, I could, the only reason I can be doing this is because I made an investment in myself. And I would encourage everybody to do this. That if you have a company, and you want to step away from it, then do it. Because you only have this one time, this one life.

33:34
in these years and these moments, you have 24 hours in a day. So I invested a lot of money at the beginning of the year and I told myself that I never committed to this art at all before this year. I knew that it was something that I had, but I never thought, I never would have bet on myself that it would have went this far, as far as it has. And

33:56
at the beginning of the year, I invested in myself. I'm going to pursue this. I'm going to step away from the painting company. I hired a whole team. They, it's not a whole team, it's two guys, but they do all this stuff for me. But it's my baby. You know, I've been running that company for 10 years and it's extremely scary. You know, stepping away from something that you built and letting somebody else run it. But so was starting a company on my own from nothing. So.

34:23
At the beginning of the year, I was like, I'm gonna do it full time and I'm gonna go for it and I'm gonna invest in the painting company and let them do it and step away and pursue art full time. And it hasn't let me down, thank God. And you guys, the community, the Augusta community, I can't thank them enough. They've been so positive and so like encouraging and the complete opposite of how I thought.

34:45
people would react to it. I thought people were going to be so mad. And that's just how it was. But I'm so grateful for the opportunity that Augusta is so welcoming to all of us.

35:04
All right, Edison, this is the second part of the podcast. This is where we talk a little bit more about you, go a little bit more in depth, and talk about mental health. I am a firm believer that everybody, in some form or fashion, goes through some form of depression or down days or sad days. Sometimes you just don't feel like getting out of bed. Sometimes you might think that you're just being lazy and you just need an extra day to sleep, but sometimes that's because stuff's weighing on your mind. And I think everyone goes through that.

35:33
And being able to expose that everybody does go through that, that allows you to not feel alone. So for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay? I, you know, it's funny, I never thought about it until I watch your, I watch every one of your podcasts, you know, and it is such an important question that you asked that. And thank you for asking that because I think it really helps a lot of people. And I never thought about it myself.

36:01
you know, until you asked me originally when we spoke. And I really had to think about it. Because, you know, I think people, I think get so used to how they do it, they forget how they do it. You know? And I was thinking of how I do it, and I think I overwhelm myself on purpose. I think that because I'm an over-thinker, I think way too much. I think if I overwhelm myself and

36:30
completely fill my plate that I won't have time to think about anything else. What that, that big elephant in the room is screaming at me and I can just focus on art and I can focus on my painting company. And sometimes it doesn't work. You know, sometimes that elephant is like, you're going to deal with me today. And it's, it is, it is, it's very important that I, that I write how I'm feeling down. Cause I have a very hard time expressing myself.

36:59
into words, you would think that I'd be so good at it. You know, that I can express myself and I can put words down, but when it comes to my own feelings, it's really, really tough. Because I don't have, I want somebody to see it. Like I want somebody to.

37:17
to say like, oh wow, I'm going through that same thing. Cause it does, it's crippling. It makes me feel like I'm completely alone in how I feel and that nobody understands. And I write it down and that's what the Letters to God series was. So I try my best to overwhelm myself and it feels a lot like suppression. That's what it feels like to me.

37:48
But creating art is a outlet. For me, writing it down helps tremendously. Creating these really positive affirmations for myself that I am enough and I am worthy of being loved and I'm not alone and people do care about me and I'm not a loser. I write these things down to remind myself and put it up. It's not something, anything that I would post or ever share with anybody, but it's for me and it really does help a lot.

38:17
Yeah, and I think that's important. That's the, you know, we talk a lot about having the stuff that's on the inside and getting it out, because sometimes that stuff that you have inside, you don't want it to fester and decay and to cause you to fall in deeper on that. I totally understand. Sometimes you have to sit in those bad places, but you always have to get up and move through it. And being able to turn, you know,

38:46
what's inside and writing it down. I'm a firm believer in journaling and being able to write those things down. And that helps to alleviate that. That helps to, and it's not that you're trying to just like, well, write it down and it's done. You know, there's no magic formula to that. But being able to have it and whether you ceremonially burn the piece of paper to...

39:13
to let it release that way, or if you keep that journal and you go back to see the progress you've made, I think those things are important. Being able to focus on something else, I believe, is important. I think when you're talking about the overloading yourself can feel sometimes like suppression, because you're like, well, if I'm so busy with this, I can't look at that. Right.

39:41
I think there's probably a fine line in there where being able to have a focus and a creative outlet and it's not that you're necessarily trying to forget that something else is there, but you're not giving it power. You're not feeding that thing. Yes. Whereas if you turn your attention to it, that feeds it. Sometimes that makes it grow bigger and that's not good. It's again not that you're ignoring it.

40:11
but you're doing something else that's bringing in more joy, bringing in more light to help keep that darkness away from you. And I think that's amazing that you, you know, that you have that outlet. Um, I've never heard it interpreted like that. That was really, really powerful, Rob. I really liked that. Thank you. You need to write that down. It was really good. Um, and you, and you talk about wanting people to see it, wanting to share that with people.

40:39
I believe also that having someone that you can talk to about that, and if it's one of those things where it's like, I can't have the conversation, I've written it down, to be able to take a picture of what I've written down or text it to a friend and say, hey, this is how I'm feeling, I wrote this down, I just want you to be aware. Just so there's awareness, and to be able to have it in a non-judgmental type of conversation, be like, hey, we don't have to go over this, we don't have to like,

41:09
churn this stuff up, but I just want you to be aware. This was today, and here are the things that were going on inside today. And I just want you to know. You know, Rob, I wanna do it so bad. I just, the things that it says, it just requires so much bravery and so much courage to say it because it comes from such a really dark place of that.

41:34
The girl that I fell in love with that I moved here for and fell apart after the first year. And it's all the Letters to God series that I have that I write down, it's about that. And I'm 100% focused in exhausting every single resource that I have to get myself

42:04
that help that I need and give myself those positive affirmations and I want to put it out there. Yeah. I really do. I really do. And it just...

42:15
She follows me and she sees the stories and she sees it because she was my number one fan of fans, this is cringy, but she sees it. Yeah. And I know that she would see it. I'm so kind, I don't want to inflict the pain that I felt on anyone else. And I know that if she did see it, it would cause some pain because of what I had to go through and what I was put through.

42:44
I want people to know this is where this later in came from. It didn't come from, it all didn't come from a really bright, happy place. Some of it did, but not all of it. I do a lot of drippy letters that I really love a lot and that came from not a happy place. But it's not always sunshines and rainbows.

43:14
You have to put up with the rain for the rainbows. Yeah. Some days, you know, as cheesy as that is.

43:24
I encourage you to do what you're doing and to keep doing what you're doing, but to have the courage to not rob somebody else that might be needing to hear those words. To be able to know that maybe they're going through that same type of thing. Yeah, maybe. Okay, and I'm not.

43:54
trying to pressure you or anything like that. I totally, 100% out of love want to encourage you and for you to be brave. And you'll be there, you'll get there. I 100% believe it. Thank you. Because I know that's your heart and your kindness will win. And you have to be kind to yourself too. And you being able to be kind to yourself.

44:23
can help so many other people too. You know, I don't think that anything within you is coming from a vengeful, hateful type of place. So again, I'm not, I just wanna say that I think that you, taking care of you is the most important thing that you can do, is to love yourself.

44:52
to be kind to yourself. And be kind to others. Well, that being kind to yourself is gonna spill out into others. Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely it is. And if you can just start with one person, you know, whether it's family, a best friend, a business partner, whoever, that you can just be yourself. And to be honest with,

45:23
I hope you find that person that you can do that so that then you can continue on into even greater and bigger things. It's definitely my mother. My mother is my strong supporter. I show her everything. I don't have a worse critic and I don't have a better critic than my mother. And that's valuable to be able to have somebody that can give you the honest

45:52
The honesty, the good and the bad. We never grow with just the good. You feel stagnant that sometimes it takes that honest answer that stings a little bit to push you on into the next thing. Yeah, there's no holding back with my mom. If I do something or if a letter's out of place, you've got to fix that. You see that P? You see that A, Addison? No, you've got to redo that.

46:20
Thank you so much. You still keep in touch with her a lot. I mean, I know you're back and forth to Florida still. Yes, that's the reason why I go back and forth. Her and the church, they're there. And I want to see her as much as I can. It's just, Augusta has been pulling me and I'm so grateful for it. They're pulling me more and more here. So Florida is getting less and less. You just came back, right, from Orlando. Yeah, yeah. The podcast calling.

46:45
Yeah, I went down there for the podcast. How rad was that? It was awesome. It was a great time being able to network and connect with people that energize you. You know, when you find those people with those same passions and they can energize you, it was a great time. It was a great time. Those stories that you were posting about it on your way down to Florida, that made my whole day when you had the you-hoo. Oh, you! Love you. That is my road drink. That is my road drink for sure. You-hoo.

47:15
Pork rinds, I don't know why, but that's road food for me. It's delicious, it's amazing. That's awesome. And it sounds like your faith is also very important to you as well. Absolutely, yes, it's very important. It's number one, I got saved in 2016 before the lettering started. And it transitioned, it went from comics to words. Because I was able to interpret the way that I...

47:42
not interpret the way that I was feeling, but interpret positive affirmations more in words than I could with figures and people. So it was a very awesome, unexpected transition that the church that I'm a part of relevant is extremely important to me, that I would never...

48:03
If I lived in California, I would still find a way to get back to Florida. And cause they still have that same chalkboard. Oh, wow. And they still can. So it's, it's the seventh year of me doing it. So I will never give it up ever. And I'll travel around the world to go to that church and still be a part of it. And they asked me that it's going to be, I can't talk about it. Yes. They asked me not to talk about it, but there's the next trip that I have a couple more murals. Okay. If you could.

48:31
put two and two together, you know, maybe.

48:39
All right, so this is the third time we to show this is time now for the photo fast

48:50
So that's like only the second time anyone's ever sung a theme song with me, although it's it's still a work in progress You do it We can work on some harmonies or something like that. It's got a guitar bus out the guitar excellent Five is powered by pod decks. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown Made it for podcasters, but anybody can use them. They're great icebreakers You can download the app on whatever, you know phone

49:19
app store that you have there, or you can get physical decks as well, which are great to put a couple of those in your pocket and just to ask people weird questions. If you're, you know, painting a mural, somebody walks up to you and be like, Hey, you know, ask my question. But if you go to chewinthefatbr.com slash pod decks and use the promo code chew, you can get 10% off your physical decks, but I'm going to use the, uh,

49:39
App right here, Addison, no wrong answers. I'm just going to hit the randomizer and you just give me the first answer off top of your head. Okay. Okay. Here we go. And question number one.

49:52
Oh, it's a classic. Toilet paper, over or under? What? Toilet paper. Does it go over or does it come under? Over. Over. Yeah. Okay, I think so as well. There are people that argue that, but you know. Like I said, there's no wrong answers, but yeah, I always see it over, like when you're in your hotel, they got the little fold and the little arrow that comes on over the top. That's a classic one. All right, question number two.

50:23
What's the most annoying bill you have to pay? My most annoying bill.

50:31
car insurance. Yes. I hate it. Oh my gosh. I've never gotten to a car accident and it keeps rising on me, I don't understand. Yes, I'm going through that right now. I have two speeding tickets in my entire driving history, 15 years of driving and it keeps going up. Yeah. Shouldn't it be going down? It should be. I'm a safe driver. It should be going down. It should be going down. But yeah, I'm having to deal with that same thing myself. Matter of fact, I'm looking at a different company right now because they're like, it's almost gonna double when it renews in like a month or so. That's so weird.

51:01
Why is it going up? I just, I don't get it. It's very annoying to me. Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with you that that one is very, very annoying. All right, question number three.

51:12
What language would you like to master? I would love to learn German. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I just, I can't do it, but I can do like they're kind of...

51:26
How does it go? You know, how do they sound? It's like, oh, you're all mortal and you're looking good. I would love to learn German. That's amazing. Yeah. You should try like a, what is it, Duolingo or whatever. There's little apps that you can learn in languages and stuff like that. I know a little bit of German. I took French in high school. But then I'd like, have you actually used the Duolingo to try and learn some?

51:56
some German so I can say Guten Morgen. Yeah. Can you do the accent? Like, you can just speak in English? I don't know if I can do the accent or not, but I can say Guten Morgen. Good morning to you. They say German is probably one of the best languages if you're a singer to learn because it's very back of the throat and it's kind of got a lot of that guttural, not like Yiddish.

52:24
but it's got a lot of that back of it. It's good for breath control and stuff like that. So I need to work on my German. Ja! German. Gels is correct. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Number four.

52:42
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? You know, I just got to ask this question yesterday. What? Yeah, I did. I would say- Wait, wait. Maybe I went back in time. Did I ask you the question? Did you? Was that you? Was it me? I would say right off the top of my head, it is so hard to answer that. I would say go back and give your dad a kiss. Oh, really?

53:11
Give your dad a kiss and a hug. Yeah. Because this is the last time you're gonna see him. Oh wow. Yeah. I walked out the door to go stay with a friend and I came back and he was gone. Oh. And he was already gone. Wow. So I never got to say bye to him and that was the hardest thing I've ever been through. I would say go back and hug that man. Yeah, yeah. That's what I would say. Wow. There's nothing wrong with that at all. Nothing wrong at all. All right.

53:39
Question number five. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. If peanut butter wasn't called peanut butter, what would it be called? Glory sauce. Glory sauce. I'm the biggest peanut butter fan that you will ever come across. Really? Yeah, I've been eating it since I was a kid. Two years old, maybe one. Maybe six months, maybe. I can't. I love it. I just, spoonfuls at a time. This is my snack.

54:06
And whenever I'm watching a movie, watching Star Wars, binging out, Netflix, just big old glob of peanut butter on a spoon. Sometimes I'll go nuts and do Hershey's syrup on top of it. Yes. Or my wife will, she'll get the spoonful of peanut butter and then she'll have like a cup with chocolate chips in it and she'll dip it in the chocolate chips. So now she's got some texture, chocolate chip and peanut butter, so it's like a little Reese's, but instead of the sauce, put the chocolate chips in there, yeah.

54:34
She'll do that. Thank you for, you just booked my evening. Of course, if you watch Ted Lasso, I think it's on Apple TV, it's a great show. You would love it. The message behind that show, I really believe you as the kind person that you are would love that show. It is one of the best written shows. It's Jason Sudeikis, he's playing an American football coach that is hired by an English,

55:04
a soccer team to be their coach. And he knows nothing about soccer, but he is one of the kindest people, one of the most positive people, and he wins them over with kindness. But he has a thing where he leaves his peanut butter with the jar open, and he'll just go by and put a couple fingers in the peanut butter jar as he's just walking around the house thinking or whatever. And it's like, that's his thing. So yeah, so he's another big peanut butter fan. Oh yeah.

55:31
Glory sauce fans, excuse me, glory sauce fans. Glory sauce. Well, Addison, that's it. That is our Fast Five and that is the show. Thank you so much for coming in today, man. Thanks so much for having me. This is awesome. If folks want to keep up with you and everything that you got going on, what's the best way for them to find you?

55:47
Probably on Instagram, I would think Garden City Artists. At Garden City Artists. I will put that link in the show notes as well. Again, thank you for being here. Thank you for coming and telling your story. It was our first time meeting in person and I just love you and I love what you're doing here and I wish you nothing but the best of everything that you've got coming in the future, sir. Thank you so much. I love you. I love you so much more. I love this podcast. I love all your interviews that you do.

56:16
What you're doing positively impacts everybody and it always makes my day better and there's a lot of them that has you know impacted me a lot more than others, but always in a positive way And it really makes a difference and it makes a difference to everybody that listens. Well, thank you. I appreciate that Thank you. Thank you. If you would like to find out more about Addison again, you can check out the show notes Also, the links will be on the guest page at chewing the fat BR calm while you are there if you would like to

56:46
I'd appreciate it if you buy me a coffee. Again, that's chewingthefatbr.com. Got a store on there with some t-shirts and some journals and stuff like that. If that will help you out, I'd appreciate you take a look there as well. But as always, I look forward to the next time we have to sit a spell and chew the fat.